A Raisin in the Sun - Trapped

A Raisin in the Sun - Lorraine Hansberry

Every character in Raisin is trapped or held back by something. I think that Walter is trapped by his own mind more so rather than the society he claims in oppressing him. Throughout the play, Walter is "more talk than walk." His attitude does not move him in a positive direction but rather emits a bitter reluctance to move forward in a world he thinks is dominated by the Anglo-Saxon way of thinking. He wants wealth and success handed to him because he feels entitled to it. "He made an investment!" Benethea says, "With a man even Travis wouldn't have trusted with his most worn-out marbles," (Hansberry, 520). Walter feels so suffocated by his job and home that he skips work, goes out and gets drunk night after night, makes bad deals with money that isn't his, and mistreats his family. He takes a selfish road to achieve what he thinks is rightly his. Here is where he is wrong and can take some lessons from his mother and wife: No one is born entitled to anything.